The Worst People Online

This entire post is completely inspired by a single image I saw on Pinterest.

Are you KIDDING ME? Are you really going to try and tell people that if they just eat celery and lemon they can replace their diabetes medication? Are you insane? I think single, solitary image drove me to write a whole article about the absolute worst people you will find online. These people go beyond the average troll, doing more than just insulting you or undermining you. These people perpetuate very damaging and dangerous ideas. They should be avoided at all costs.

Self-officiated doctors

This is the person who made the above image. They will claim that their home remedies will cure your incurable disease. The least dangerous of these people are the ones who just use vague terminology to make it seem like they have a miracle cure when really they don’t. That would be like if the above image was referring to only Type 2 diabetes which can be “cured” with a healthy diet and restricting alcohol. However, to get more clicks and attention, they just said “diabetes” instead of specifying, and put two random foods to make you wonder what could lemon and celery possibly do that is so magical to cure diabetes! It’s not honest or kind, but it’s not the most dangerous thing.

What changes the above image from that into true evil, is the part that says “replace your medication.” They are blatantly claiming that whatever their magic recipe is can manage your diabetes better than actual prescribed medicine from a doctor. Not that it can help in addition to the medication, but that you should stop taking your medication and instead use their crap. This is insanely horrible, immoral thing to do and will result in death. If someone goes into a diabetic shock, and then drink lemon and celery water, they will literally die.

Let me also be clear about something: I am not against natural treatments for some illnesses. Ginger ale always helps my stomach aches and lemon tea feels great on a sore throat. But the fact of the matter is, you cannot cure most illnesses with natural ingredients. Some herbs may help reduce symptoms, changing your diet will generally improve your health, and teas can have an effect on your body, but to claim that a leafy vegetable will completely cure lupus is cruel.

Neurotypical Karen

This is a term I’m borrowing from Tumblr. Neurotypical Karen is a meme that is used when mentally ill people are dismissed or criticized by mentally healthy people. This person is someone who tells you that all you need to do to permanently cure your depression is do yoga and green tea will erase your anxiety. This person is similar to the first, but they go so far as to blame the ill person for their ailment. She says to just stop being all the time and that happiness is a choice, you just have to make it!

This post basically sums up this type of person perfectly. While no one in real life is actually textbook Neurotypical Karen, there are so many people like her. They rush you and criticize you for not making progress how they think you should. They are ignorant but present themselves as mental health professionals. Meanwhile they reject most of the actually medical recovery options, such as medication and professional therapy. Most importantly, they ignore the scientific and anecdotal proof that mental illness is a combination of mental and physical conditions that are beyond the complete control of those affected.

As with the arm-chair doctors, I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with using these suggestions to assist in your recovery. Natural ingredients and some hobbies can help cope with mental health. The issue is when these people claim they can completely cure these illnesses instantly, and blame you for doing it wrong when it doesn’t work that way. By all means, start practicing yoga, take up watercolour painting, and buy that smoothie with fresh fruits. But telling people that they are just lazy and selfish for not wanting to do those things is wrong.

Total expert on everything, ever

Sometimes it can be hard to get the facts online. There is no end to the amount of false information. And usually they are easier to see than the truth. Part of that is due to these types of people. They share hard facts without double checking the information, which often leads to spreading lies and ignorance. Sure, they sometimes hit the mark, but that occasional success is almost more dangerous because then you build trust in them as a source and then makes the impact of their not reliable content deeper. This is why it’s important to fact check pretty much everything you read online.

The image above is a perfect example of what I’m talking about. This post is the bane of my existence. I’ve seen multiple people and family members share or reference this stupid image and it’s just not true! These numbers are completely made up and in fact, any money that refugees receive to facilitate their move to Canada has to be paid back, with interest. This is actually a burden on many refugees since this debt can follow them for years. My student loan debt is bad enough and I’m not moving across the globe, possibly leaving my family behind in a war torn country and trying to build a new life. So it’s blatantly not factual that Canadian government is treating their refugees better than their pensioners.

And that is the major problem. This image has a lot of numbers and math. It claims to know the dollar amount being given by the government to each and every refugee and pensioner, with no room for individual circumstance. They are not only stating these as facts, but they seem to back up these claims with numbers. Numbers can be very impressive to the passive Facebook scroller, so they assume it’s legitimate and share it along. But it’s not real at all. It’s just a dangerous, xenophobic message meant to create an us versus them mentality.

When false information is so widely agreed upon, it starts to shape people’s opinions. Not that people need help being pessimistic about accepting refugees, but if you also tell them that they are basically stealing money from the pockets of your grandparents, then you start to truly hate them. And the government for letting them. And it’s this change of opinion that makes Liar Liar so dangerous. Most of these incorrect posts come from a place of political messaging. Whether it’s race or class or gender, usually the information is emotionally-charged. That’s another way they make you less likely to question it: you’re so mad you aren’t thinking straight.

The perfect __________

The perfect mom. The perfect employee. The perfect neighbor. I’m not talking about people who are actually good at those things. I’m talking about those who are always criticizing other people for not being perfect. They must be perfect in order to make all those claims and insults, right? May those without sin cast the first stone, right? Oh wait, no one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes and you should give other people a break when they mess up? Yeah that sounds way more realistic.

Apparently there is a Yiddish word for this exact thing. People think that giving advise is always a good thing. That people are inherently asking for your input when they post about their life online. But this is just as rude at blatantly saying to that person “You are a bad mother,” or “You’re a terrible artist.” You may phrase it as “You should be only feeding your children organic food” or “The proportions on your hands are too small.” But that is what that person is going to hear. Even if you think that you’re phrasing the advice in the most considerate way ever, if they didn’t ask for it, you don’t need to give it.

This type of person may not always be dangerous in the “perpetuating harmful ideas and behaviors” kind of way, but they are very threatening to personal self-esteem. Don’t get me wrong, constructive criticism can be an important part of bettering oneself. Without feedback, we can never know what we are doing well and what we should work on. But if all you are getting is unsolicited advice on things you don’t want to be reviewed on, then you are going to become less and less confident in yourself. Also, for a large majority of the time, you don’t know the whole story behind a post on social media. You don’t understand everything that is going on in that person’s life and the reality of their relationships. An example used below is when parenting advice is given. This father had been criticized for taking his children to McDonald’s. He explains that when it comes to children, letting them have the junk food is intensely easier and more placating than anything else you can do for them. In reality, they don’t always have the time to cook dinner or negotiate with their toddler for two hours in order to get them to each the home cooked meal. Not to mention for some families, all they can afford is the drive-thru. Making these assumptions that the parents are just being lazy or negligent is simply unfair.

RIP Trolls

So here is something I didn’t know existed until I was researching for this post. This isn’t just a troll, someone who abuses cap locks and slurs. This is a special kind of demon. These people go onto Facebook and find tribute pages. These are groups or pages that are dedicated to someone who passed away recently. Sometimes they double as awareness for whatever condition the person died too and sometimes they are just a place for people to share their condolences and memories of the deceased. They then flood the page with triggering content, meant to disturb those who are using the page to grieve. I know right? This sounds like absolute madness to me. What kind of monster takes a child dying to gun violence or a husband dying to cancer and throwing it in the face of their friends and family. Why?!

From posting gory images of people dying to writing out evil messages to tear at the hearts of those who cared, these people are very disturbed. Some of them claim that they do this to critique society’s way of publicizing personal matters such as deaths. But that is no excuse for the things these people post. One person commented on a photo of the deceased 14 year old “help me mummy, it’s hot in hell.” On top of that, they posted this on Mother’s Day.

I honestly don’t know what else to say about these people. They take trolling to a new level. And that’s why they are on this list. They can’t settle for just being mean or rude. They need to take someones grief and twist it and crush it. And you can bet that these people wouldn’t ever dream of saying those things to a mourning mother in person. They are cowards who hide behind their computer monitors and keyboards.

On that cheerful note, those are some of the worst people online. Watch out for these people, and for the love of all things good in this world, don’t be them!